14 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1018 



mankind, schools and the means of education shall 

 forever be encouraged. 



The Territory of the Northwest, the 

 government of which was provided in this 

 ordinance, was at that time a vast waste of 

 forest and prairie, furnishing a scant and 

 precarious subsistence for savage tribes and 

 attracting to its borders a few of the most 

 hardy sons of civilization. The knowledge 

 for whose growth and diffusion the wise 

 provision was made, has drained the ma- 

 larial marshes, converted wild prairie and 

 tangled wood into fruitful orchards and 

 fertile fields, dotted the whole area with 

 neat villages, reared great cities, linked all 

 parts with steam and electric roads, and 

 provided comfortable homes and abundant 

 food for millions. The men who wrote the 

 Ordinance of 1787 left a great inheritance 

 which is temporarily in our possession. 

 Let us write into this great document: 



Every ill which can be relieved shall be re- 

 moved, and every preventable disease shall be pre- 

 vented. 



The wisdom of our fathers has secured 

 for us a greater measure of health and a 

 longer term of life; let us do as well for 

 those who are to possess this fair land in 

 the next generation. Let us live not only 

 for ourselves and the present, but for the 

 greater and more intelligent life of the 

 future. 



Not myself, but the truth that in life I have spoken 

 Not myself, but the seed that in life I have sown 

 Shall pass into ages — ^all about me forgotten. 

 Save the truth I have spoken, the things I have 

 done. 



All things are relative and health is no 

 exception. With a greater degree of health 

 among all, religion will become more effec- 

 tive for good, morality will have a deeper 

 significance and a wider application and 

 knowledge will multiply and distribute its 

 blessing's more widely. 



In the further improvement of the phys- 



ical, mental and moral conditions of the, 

 race, medicine should continue to be a 

 leader. There is no other calling so essen- 

 tial to this movement, and in order to more 

 thoroughly fit itself for this important task 

 the profession should first of all look to its 

 own betterment. The medical man should 

 possess intelligence of high order, manifest 

 industry without stint and show the high- 

 est integrity in all he does. That it is the 

 aim of this association to attract to its 

 colors men possessing these qualifications 

 and to deny admission to others is shown 

 by the advance in the standard of medical 

 education, the enforcement of medical 

 registration laws and the denunciation of 

 every form of medical charlatanism. In all 

 these directions the profession has the sup- 

 port of the more intelligent men in other 

 callings. The improvement in medical 

 training secured within recent years in this 

 country is without a parallel in the history 

 of education. The requirements for admis- 

 sion to the medical schools have been 

 rapidly advanced and standardized; the 

 number of medical schools has been reduced 

 from 166 to 104 by obliteration and combi- 

 nation, much to the improvement of all, 

 and a far better class of matriculates has 

 been secured. The courses of instruction 

 have been lengthened and made more scien- 

 tific. Each good medical school is doing 

 more or less of research which is not con- 

 fined to laboratory investigators, but is 

 fast finding its way into hospitals. In- 

 deed, some of our clinical men are now 

 making most valuable contributions. Every 

 medical man should have much of the 

 spirit of research. It is the pabulum on 

 which medicine feeds and without it the 

 profession atrophies and starves. It is the 

 glory and strength of the profession that 

 it is not bound by dogma and pays no heed 

 to ipse dixits. I have no sympathy with 

 the idea that medical research should be 



